Big Tobacco Merger Is A Desperate Bid To Corner Black Smokers

The cigarette industry, like many of its customers, is gasping for air. And now it’s turning more than ever to racial targeting to survive.

Reynolds American, the No. 2 U.S. tobacco maker after Altria, on Tuesdayannounced a deal to buy No. 3 cigarette maker Lorillard for about $25 billion. It would be the latest, and one of the biggest, in a string of mergers in reaction to regulatory crackdowns and the long decline of smoking…Read More.